1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recoil starter, wherein a recoil rope is pulled to rotate a rope reel so that a rotation of the rope reel is transmitted to a rotating member such as a drive pulley or the like coupled to a crankshaft of an engine via a ratchet mechanism, to thereby start the engine.
2. Description of Related Art
A recoil starter is known in which a rope reel is rotated by pulling a recoil rope wound around the rope reel, a rotation of the rope reel is transmitted to a rotating member such as a flywheel magnet or a drive pulley, and a crankshaft of an engine coupled to the rotating member is rotated, to thereby start the engine. Between the rope reel and the rotating member is disposed a ratchet mechanism. When the recoil rope is pulled to rotate the rope reel in an engine starting direction, the ratchet mechanism engages with the rotating member to transmit the rotation to the rotating member, to thereby start the engine. After the engine has been started or when the rope reel is rotated in the direction opposite to the engine starting direction in order to rewind the recoil rope, the ratchet mechanism disengages from the rotating member and acts to ensure that the rotation of the engine side is not transmitted to the rope reel and that the rotation of the rope reel in the opposite direction is not transmitted to the rotating member.
Among ratchet mechanisms in conventional recoil starters, there is a ratchet mechanism which is so constructed that when a ratchet pawl rotatably supported at one end side thereof on the rope reel engages with the drive pulley to transmit rotation to the drive pulley, a distal end of the ratchet pawl abuts against part of the rope reel, whereby the load applied to the ratchet pawl is reduced, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 55-48778. In this conventional recoil starter, the ratchet pawl is configured by a pawl piece formed of a plate-like material having a cylindrical base portion attached to an end thereof, and the cylindrical base portion is inserted into a hole formed in the rope reel so that the pawl piece is rotated around this hole. Such a ratchet pawl requires to be produced by integrally coupling the plate-like material and the cylindrical material, and thus man-hours to produce these respective parts and man-hours to integrally join both parts are necessary, with a result that there has been the problem that total production costs rise.
Another conventional ratchet mechanism is known in which the ratchet pawl is formed of a steel plate having a relatively small thickness by bending the steel plate into a V shape, a pivot portion is formed at an end of the ratchet pawl by curling an end portion of the ratchet pawl, and the pivot portion is rotatably fitted in a pivot hole formed in a side surface of the rope reel, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2-124268. This conventional ratchet pawl has the advantage that it can be manufactured at a low cost because it can be manufactured by processing a steel plate into a V shape and curling an end thereof to form the pivot portion. In this instance, the pivot hole of the rope reel that receives the pivot portion of the ratchet pawl is not formed to be completely cylindrical but is open at a side wall portion thereof corresponding to a rotational range of the ratchet pawl that is integrally formed by the steel plate. Therefore, a sufficient strength is not obtained for a portion of the rope reel having the pivot hole formed therein, and thus it is necessary to increase the thickness of the rope reel forming the pivot hole.